Post by stormcat on Mar 15, 2007 23:14:47 GMT -5
The following is a popular tale found in the Westcar Papyrus now in Berlin. Traditionally it was a story told to the king as he was watching his Great Pyramid being built...The Wife of the Lector Priest- This is the earliest of the stories told to Knufu and dates to the time of King Zozer of the Third Dynasty, told to the king by Prince Khafre. It happened when King Zozer came to Memphis to the temple of Ptah. Here he took the chief lector priest with him called Ubaoner. now the wife of Ubaoner was in love with a townsman, and in the garden of Ubaoner was a lake and a pavilion beside it. The nameless townsman said to the priests wife, let us go and enjoy ourselves in the pavilion by the lake, and they did so, passing the day in drinking. In the evening the townsman went swimming in the lake, the whole incident was observed by the household steward. When his master returned after many days, the whole incident was reported by the steward. Ubaoner like all the lector priests was a magician, he sent for his staff of office, made of Ebony and Gold. The priest made a Crocodile of wax and put a spell over it and said "Whoever comes to bathe in my lake, you seize and hold him." Then Ubaoner told the steward that when the townsman went to bathe in the lake to throw in the wax Crocodile, which was life sized, to throw it in after him. The next time the lector priest was called away by his duties, his wife summoned the townsman and passed a happy day in the lake pavilion, the steward watched what they did, and when the townsman went to bathe he threw in the wax crocodile. It became a real reptile and it seized the townsman in it's jaws, and went to the bottom of the lake. Now Ubaoner was away 7 days with the king, the townsman was at the bottom of the lake without breathing. Ubaoner returned to the king and told him of all that had happened, and together they returned to the lake. Ubaoner called to the crocodile it came and he took it into his hands and it again became wax. Then Ubaoner asked the king to pass judgment on the pair of lovers. The king told the crocodile to take what was his and he disappeared with the townsman. The king took the wife to a field north of the royal palace and had her burnt alive, and scattered her ashes on the Nile. referenced-Egyptian Legends, by M.V. Seton-Williams